Navigation

Archive | Bob’s Updates

Posts about Bob’s life.

Image Courtesy of Shutterstock

Moving to Louisville

By on May 24, 2012 in —Family, —Sovereign Grace Music

In a little under two weeks my family and I will be moving to Louisville, KY. After thirty years of being in Gaithersburg, MD, Sovereign Grace Ministries, the family of churches that I serve, is relocating its offices. I’ve been here since 1997, so it’s understandably a bittersweet departure. But I’m filled with faith for what God has planned for the future. The Lord has been kind to us in Gaithersburg. We’ve been able to co-labor with Covenant Life Church to put on conferences of all types (including WorshipGod), host the Sovereign Grace Pastors College, and serve other Sovereign Grace churches in our region. But a potential move has …

Continue Reading 57

Pastoring Through Song – Notes from Sydney

By on November 4, 2011 in —Leading a Congregation, —My Travels, —Other Events, —Worship and the Church, —Worship and the Pastor

Here’s another message I shared in Australia at the one day TWIST Pastor’s Conference. I first gave this message in 2004 and called it “Corporate Worship as Pastoral Care.” The talk developed out of a realization that we can often be unaware of how God wants to use the lyrics of songs and how they’re led to care for people’s souls. We’re doing more than simply singing songs together when we gather, hoping for some “worshipful” or “anointed” moment to happen. The Holy Spirit is at work to encourage, impart faith, convict, and comfort as we “teach and admonish one another” through song. Here’s a brief outline of my message. You can download …

Continue Reading 11
IMG_1495

Reflections on My Trip to Australia

By on October 28, 2011 in —Emotions and Worship, —Expressiveness, —My Travels, —Worship and Music

The first ten days of October found me in Australia. It was my first time there. Hopefully not my last. I was hosted by Dave and Emma Taylor and their three charming kids, Josh, Amy, and Lydia. Dave pastors Sovereign Grace Church Sydney, now about one year old. It’s a church that evidences love for the Savior, for God’s Word, for each other, and for reaching their community with the gospel. Pure joy to hang out with them. I shared my itinerary in a previous post. Briefly, I spent time at Dave’s church, TWIST (The Word in Song Together) conferences in Brisbane and Sydney, a TWIST pastor’s conference, Moore college, an EMU Music songwriters …

Continue Reading 11

Interview with John Martin from Enfield

By on July 3, 2011 in —Hymns, —Interviews, —WorshipGod Conferences

Recently I had the joy of being at the Resolved Conference in Palm Springs, CA, along with about 3500 mostly college students. We heard some great messages from Al Mohler, CJ Mahaney, Rick Holland, John MacArthur, and Steve Lawson. While I was there I took a few minutes to interview John Martin about his band, Enfield, who led the music at Resolved. Enfield is made up of John (piano and vocals), Lisa Martin (John’s wife on vocals), Patrick Anderson (guitars), Ryan Foglesong (bass/arranging/songwriting), David Zimmer (drums/arranging/songwriting), Paul Hoover on guitars, and Wil Pearce on various stringed instruments. They’re all gifted and …

Continue Reading 6
emails

Lost Emails

By on March 2, 2011 in Bob’s Updates

It occurred to me a few weeks ago that I wasn’t receiving any emails through this my blog, that is, through the Contact Me tab above. We checked into it and sure enough, all the emails that came through Worship Matters were going into a spam folder. This has been going on since early January. Fortunately, it wasn’t as bad as the last time this happened, when we discovered 600+ emails that hadn’t come through. But we were able to retrieve those emails. Apparently whoever knows about this stuff was able to fix the problem but is unable to retrieve this recent batch. So if you’ve sent me a note in the past two months, I haven’t seen it. If …

Continue Reading 0

Leading in the Midst of Trials

By on February 17, 2010 in —Family, —Leading a Congregation

I’ve been asked more than once how you can lead people in singing God’s praise when you’re going through your own personal trials. This past weekend I had the opportunity to find out first hand. I was out of town last week and on Wednesday morning received a call from my son, Jordan. He and his wife, Tali, have three young boys, and they’re currently living with us as Jordan attends the Sovereign Grace Pastor’s College. “Dad, do you have a few minutes?” he asked. I wasn’t expecting what he said next. “We had to take Jack to the hospital last night. The doctors say he has cancer.” I had one of those moments when the world seems to stop …

Continue Reading 51
shutterstock_173192369_Fotor

Reflections on Turning 55

By on January 7, 2010 in —Family, Devotions

55. A speed limit. Five years past half a century. LV. Double nickels. And today, my age. I finally qualify for the 10% senior discount at Jiffy Lube. I remember when 55 seemed really old. Right now it feels like the prime of life.  What does a 55 year old worship leader think about? Here’s a sample… 1. The years I have left for fruitful ministry are dwindling. Used to be I never thought much about death. Now I think about it at least weekly. Life is short, and it keeps getting shorter. I estimate I have between 10-20 more years of fruitful ministry, Lord willing. Then again, I may not live to see 2011. A lot to accomplish before …

Continue Reading 29

Lessons Learned From Three Decades of Leading

By on September 10, 2009 in —Expressiveness, —Free Messages, —Interviews, —Leading a Congregation, —Worship and Christ, —Worship and the Pastor, —WorshipGod Conferences

On Friday night at WorshipGod09, Jeff Purswell interviewed CJ Mahaney and me about some things we had learned over thirty years of leading, much of that together. From the early 90’s I was involved in leading the music at various Sovereign Grace conferences, and then in 1997 I became the worship pastor at Covenant Life Church, where CJ was senior pastor. CJ has been the most significant influence in my life when it comes to the focus and practicals of leading congregational worship. During the interview, Jeff asked us about different topics including the role of the senior pastor in planning/leading corporate worship, encouraging your …

Continue Reading 14

John Piper Speaking at WorshipGod09

By on December 17, 2008 in —Friends, —WorshipGod Conferences

Even though 2008 isn’t finished yet, I’m in the midst of planning for our next worship conference, WorshipGod09: From Generation to Generation, to be held Aug. 5-8, 2009, in Gaithersburg, MD. The main messages will address the importance of passing on biblical values of corporate worship from one generation to the next. I was thrilled when John Piper of Desiring God Ministries agreed to come. He’ll be speaking Wednesday night and Thursday morning. I was also able to confirm my good friend, Jeff Purswell, as a main speaker. Jeff has served us well in the past by providing messages that are biblically rich, theologically insightful, and spiritually …

Continue Reading 29

What a Team Likes in a Stage Manager

By on December 13, 2008 in —Friends, —Sound and Tech, —Websites

I’ve mentioned the blog of our tech director, Dave Wilcox, before. It’s called “Undistract,” which I think is a great name for a blog devoted to the media and technical aspects of a church. Recently Dave shared some thoughts on how a stage manager can best serve a band during rehearsal. The relationship between bands and sound team members can be tense at times, due to misunderstandings, poor communication, and sinful hearts. That’s why I so appreciate Dave highlighting how one new stage manager, Kami, recently did a great job serving the musicians. If you’re in small church, don’t be thrown off by the term “stage manager.” Dave defines …

Continue Reading 4

Thoughts on the Desiring God National Conference

By on September 30, 2008 in —Friends, —Leading a Team, —Other Events, —Songwriting, —Worship and God, —Worship and Music

I had the privilege of speaking at the Desiring God National Conference last Saturday morning. It was a whirlwind trip that I made with my daughter (and assistant) Chelsea. We got there for dinner on Friday and caught a 7 PM flight out on Saturday. It came at the end of our two week beach vacation, and I decided not to try that again. Too distracting. Chuck Steddom, a good friend from John Piper’s church, led the singing along with a team from his church. It was encouraging to hear them introduce “Praise the Lord,” a song from our recent Psalms CD. Sinclair Ferguson gave a message the first night called “The Tongue, the Bridle, and the …

Continue Reading 9

Why Theology in Songs is Important

By on September 29, 2008 in —Friends, —Funerals, —Songwriting, —Worship and Life

I don’t know Terry Stauffer personally, but he attended the Together for the Gospel conference in 2006 and blogged on a hymn we sang there, How Sweet and Aweful is the Place. He’s a pastor in Alberta, Canada. That was all I knew. Until yesterday. Yesterday, someone left a comment on the post where I referenced Terry and passed on some very sad news. Emily Stauffer, Terry’s daughter,  was murdered this past Saturday afternoon while taking a walk. She was 14 years old. Providentially, Terry has been studying the book of Job, and recently wrote a post on the Sovereign Grace CD, Come Weary Saints, a CD we put together for those going through …

Continue Reading 3

Heading to the Desiring God Conference

By on September 26, 2008 in —Family, —Other Events

I’m heading out from vacation today with my daughter, Chelsea, to speak at the Desiring God National Conference, The Power of Words and the Wonder of God. I’ll be addressing the topic of “Why Does God Want Us to Sing?” It’s a real privilege to speak at this conference along with Sinclair Ferguson, Paul Tripp, Mark Driscoll, Dan Taylor, and John Piper, although I don’t think I’ll agree to speak at the end of a vacation again. It can be just a little distracting. The first week was mostly sunny and warm, but God saw fit in the second week to give us numerous days of 40mph winds and then some rain to go with it. Not sure you can see it clearly …

Continue Reading 5

On Vacation

By on September 13, 2008 in —Family

From Sept. 14-28 I’ll be here with my family and a two other families. The only ones who can’t make it this year are my son, Devon, and his wife, Kristine. They had to stay behind because their son is going to be born any day. Maybe I’ll blog. Maybe I won’t… …

Continue Reading 7

WorshipGod08 Seminars Now Available

By on September 11, 2008 in —Arranging, —Choirs, —Choosing Songs, —Expressiveness, —Friends, —Leading a Congregation, —Leading a Team, —Music Theory, —Musicians & Vocalists, —Songwriting, —Sound and Tech, —Training a Team, —Vocalists, —Worship and Life, —Worship and Music, —Worship and Scripture, —Worship and the Church, —Worship and the Pastor, —WorshipGod Conferences

Over at the Sovereign Grace website, we’ve finally posted 29 WorshipGod08 seminars for you to listen to or download for free. . . . Here’s the list: Band on the Run (Bob Kauflin) Building Bridges: Pastors and Worship Leaders (Bob Kauflin) Caring for Your Sound System (Darryl Wenger) Copyright Law and Church Music: The Eight Keys (Paul Herman) Drumming for Worshipers (Jordan Kauflin) Electric Guitar Workshop (Dave Campbell) Foundations for Bass Players (Don Nalle) Foundations for Keyboardists (Jon Payne) Growing Your Team for the Glory of God (Jon Payne) In-Ear Monitors (Doug Gould) Leading and Caring for …

Continue Reading 12
Older posts Newer posts

Powered by WordPress. Designed by Woo Themes